tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5721082653718997788.post396230338162588853..comments2023-11-27T23:30:40.341-05:00Comments on Anything But Theist: I Do DeclareAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02504734487692109101noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5721082653718997788.post-91242278982916803032010-07-26T11:53:30.259-04:002010-07-26T11:53:30.259-04:00Slavery still exists... because ending it is not i...Slavery still exists... because ending it is not inevitable. It takes government intervention to prevent the natural human behavior of exploiting others, whether the victim is in chains or cubicles.<br /><br />You may disagree with me on this, but you will certainly agree that the government is beholden to the economic interests of the nation. Whoever holds the purse strings controls the ballot (which is where real power lies, as choosing between a conservative Democrat and a conservative Republican is the sad state of American politics at the moment).<br /><br />The South essentially did the nation a favor by divorcing the government from the interests that wanted slavery. In no other country that abolished slavery was the national economy so heavily based on slavery. The North certainly relied on cheap southern cotton every bit as much as southern states relied on cotton taxes in order to operate.<br /><br />Was the war a high point in America? Certainly not. Was Lincoln a tyrant? Possibly. Does this change the fact that the war was begun solely by states that feared their exploitation of Africans would be contained and one day ended? Not one bit.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02504734487692109101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5721082653718997788.post-7779037673812248672010-07-26T10:59:31.805-04:002010-07-26T10:59:31.805-04:00I laugh heartily at your claim that the South woul...<i>I laugh heartily at your claim that the South would have ended slavery</i><br /><br />Yeah, it didn't end peacefully anywhere else, did it?Nickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09991410496107221875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5721082653718997788.post-51014781404016998812010-07-26T10:57:46.346-04:002010-07-26T10:57:46.346-04:00Again, my point was that the war (certainly from L...Again, my point was that the war (certainly from Lincoln's perspective) was not about slavery. Lincoln himself orchestrated an attempt to pass a pro-slavery amendment to the Constitution in 1861.<br /><br />In his first inaugural, he even referred to it with these words:<br /><br />"I understand a proposed amendment to the Constitution . . . has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the states, including that of persons held to service...holding such a provision to be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable."<br /><br />The amendment itself read:<i>No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State.</i>Nickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09991410496107221875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5721082653718997788.post-20679775948059281312010-07-26T07:49:22.286-04:002010-07-26T07:49:22.286-04:00Let me try to put it another way:
"The War O...Let me try to put it another way:<br /><br />"The War Of Northern Aggression" was about states' rights if the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are about bringing terrorists to justice.<br /><br />In actuality, the Civil War was about rich exploiters of human beings using the patriotism of southern soldiers for their own economic interests, while the wars in the Middle East today are rich exploiters of resources using the patriotism of American soldiers...<br /><br />I laugh heartily at your claim that the South would have ended slavery. "The Guns of the South" is not a good source for historical perspective. A decent read, but not realistic.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02504734487692109101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5721082653718997788.post-13644929702833543202010-07-25T22:49:28.776-04:002010-07-25T22:49:28.776-04:00Your first claim is ridiculous speculation. Also, ...Your first claim is ridiculous speculation. Also, this isn't about me being in Lincoln's fan club. <br /><br />The bottom line: rich slave-holding interests got slave states to secede, and the southern soldiers are such lemmings that they fought and died for these interests.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02504734487692109101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5721082653718997788.post-78848881442088933072010-07-25T22:27:54.407-04:002010-07-25T22:27:54.407-04:00Slavery would have ended peacefully anyway (and wi...Slavery would have ended peacefully anyway (and without the loss of 600,000 American lives) and besides, states had a right to leave the Union, and Lincoln disregarded that. He also suspended <i>habeas corpus</i>, had opposition newspapers in the North closed, sent troops to New York to suppress (and kill) draft protesters (Lincoln introduced military conscription; still like him, Bret?) sent people in the North to jail for expressing anti-war, anti-Lincoln views and was an all-around fucking tyrant who, if he had been assassinated at the start of the war would have spared us all the nightmares that followed over the past 150 years (if you think that's too radical, a Northern newspaper, the Wisconsin Democrat, said in 1864 <i> "If Abraham Lincoln should be reelected for another term of four years of such wretched administration, we hope that a bold hand will be found to plunge the dagger into the tyrant’s heart for the public welfare." </i>Nickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09991410496107221875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5721082653718997788.post-18795897750946672042010-07-25T22:09:23.424-04:002010-07-25T22:09:23.424-04:00Thanks for the history lesson, Ulysses S. Grant.Thanks for the history lesson, Ulysses S. Grant.Nickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09991410496107221875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5721082653718997788.post-88736297019951872662010-07-25T10:46:01.773-04:002010-07-25T10:46:01.773-04:00You can toot that horn all day long, but the sole ...You can toot that horn all day long, but the sole reason the south threw a hissy fit was because Lincoln was going to prevent new states from adopting slavery, which would put the nation on track for ending slavery (as more non-slave states would quickly outnumber the slave states).<br /><br />You can pretend all you want that it was about something else, something grander and more noble. It's simply not true.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02504734487692109101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5721082653718997788.post-88229052720423908732010-07-25T10:26:50.302-04:002010-07-25T10:26:50.302-04:00it is a state that fought on the wrong side of sla...<i>it is a state that fought on the wrong side of slavery.</i><br /><br />It <a href="http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig2/denson6.html" rel="nofollow">wasn't about slavery </a>.Nickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09991410496107221875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5721082653718997788.post-42138726215385810622010-07-25T10:12:03.038-04:002010-07-25T10:12:03.038-04:00Okay, I can understand that. I'm in Mississipp...Okay, I can understand that. I'm in Mississippi and less than thrilled with it.vjackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05868095335395368227noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5721082653718997788.post-1693217498244973122010-07-25T09:39:13.058-04:002010-07-25T09:39:13.058-04:00My wife is very paranoid about people tracking her...My wife is very paranoid about people tracking her down, otherwise I would post my home address online so people could visit or send me junk mail.<br /><br />Suffice to say, it's not Texas or Florida, but it is a state that fought on the wrong side of slavery.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02504734487692109101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5721082653718997788.post-8725896159455886262010-07-25T09:19:31.410-04:002010-07-25T09:19:31.410-04:00Where did you move in the south?Where did you move in the south?vjackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05868095335395368227noreply@blogger.com